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This next series of blog posts will explore academic language. You’ll learn how to ensure your school doesn’t fall into the trap of simply teaching words and grammar to EAL students, at the detriment of developing the critical thinking skills and academic fluency that is required for all-round academic success.
This first post summarises and recaps the concept of academic language.
What is Academic Language?
To succeed academically, Secondary EAL students must become proficient in “at least two bodies of knowledge: English, more specifically English for the classroom and tests, and disciplinary content material such as history [and] science” (Maxwell-Jolly, Gándara, & Mendez Benavídez, 2005, p. 4).
Acquiring the “basic academic skills students need in order to access school subjects and communicate understanding of content” is also critical for their success (Maxwell-Jolly, et al., 2005, p. 4)
Dr Robin Scarcella’s definition of academic English includes the language of higher-order thinking, including inventing, inferring and conceptualising, and includes both oral and written communication skills.
In summary, explicit teaching of academic vocabulary across all subjects is critical to EAL student progress. Without this, students won’t access subject content. Teaching vocabulary is not enough however, EAL students must be included in higher order learning within the mainstream context in order to develop their overall academic fluency.
Why Can Learning Academic Language be Challenging for EAL students?
Unfortunately, students are “unlikely to learn [academic English] on their own through exposure to English oral discourse” (August, Carlo, Dressler & Snow, 2005, p.55).
Unlike the “technical” or content-specific vocabulary that is “recognizably specific to a particular topic, field or discipline,” (Coxhead & Nation, 2001, p. 261), academic English vocabulary reaches across disciplines and must be explicitly taught.
Echevarria, Short and Powers (2006) argue that “without systematic [academic] language development, students never develop the requisite academic literacy skills needed for achieving success in mainstream classes, for meeting content standards, or for passing standardized assessments” (p. 199).
In summary, academic language must be explicitly taught in every subject for a student to develop proficiency and therefore unlock the learning taking place in classrooms in order to achieve their academic potential.
Questions for School Leaders to Consider:
To what extent do all of your teaching and support staff understand the concept of academic language?
Does the teaching and learning of academic language feature in your school development plan or EAL policy?
What kind of training and support would benefit your heads of department in order to ensure the explicit teaching of academic language is included across the curriculum?
To what extent are EAL students immersed in mainstream learning in order to benefit from the higher order learning taking place there?
Questions for EAL Teachers/Coordinators to Consider:
To what extent do you use intervention lessons to consolidate students’ learning of academic vocabulary from different subjects?
Is there a whole school system for collating and sharing academic vocabulary with students? To what extent might this be supportive for students? How would you go about achieving this?
In what ways could intervention lessons be adapted in order to accommodate more higher order thinking skills?
What Can We Do in the Mainstream Classroom to Develop Academic Language Breadth and Depth?
Use paired and small group work to improve students’ critical thinking and critical literacy skills; make sure groups allow for students who are less proficient in English to listen to more skilled and fluent students.
Use games to make learning and consolidating new vocabulary fun - see the example in the resources below.
Display the academic vocabulary that you want students to understand and use. See our sample Critical Thinking Poster in the resources section below.
Resources:
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